Our crew had some success out at the Melrose 6/18h race. Darcy Strudwick, Harry Hollaway and Noah Piggin (+ buddy Justin) netted 2nd place in the 18h race, while Adam Bowey (+ buddy Yovanni) took 2nd in the 6h duo race.
I wasn’t there so can’t provide too much commentary apart from “the boys killed it”- so will revert to the excellent words provided by Darcy and Adam.
The Melrose 18 hour entry was based on the closure of the AHPVSS, most of the dirt division started out doing pedal prix and thus it is a big part of the calendar for us.
Darcy Strudwick
We entered the race with a feeling of unknown, from the start we were somewhat confused and only started understanding what was actually happening midway through the race. The event technically started for us at around 2pm, here we cut some practice laps and for 3 lads who’d never been to this place it was extremely important.
The trails at this time were super dry but so much fun! It had a bit of everything and we all loved it! The track was around 12 km long with around 220m of climbing per lap. It was so important to cut a few laps as the race started at night.
Noah started us off, in typical Melrose fashion there was a theme to the whole event, this year being Disney, we sent Noah to hang out with the other Goofy riders, he started off in a pretty relaxed fashion, although he was sitting in the lead, it wasn’t long until the faster team hit the front, Noah rode a nice pace and although a 3minute gap was already evident by the start of the first lap, we knew the night was long. Pushing hard through the night we sat on the same lap until mid morning.
Our competition, headed by super star Sam Walsh just kept pushing super hard and and gains we did make, we lost rather quickly. By 8am I went out for my second stint, sharknado appeared from the heathens and absolutely drenched everyone, at one point I was being pelted with hail!
At this stage we had been a fair way behind the leader and after some mid race hesitations, we pushed on and worked to hold second. With huge winds and muddy riders we finished 2nd in the 18 Hour 4x Male.
We were super proud of the result and reckon we’ll be back next year. Massive thanks to the team; Harry Hollaway, Noah Piggin and our ring in Justin Counihan, for making the event super smooth and super fun!
It was a race in Melbourne weather, rolling showers with periods of hail, broken up with periods of sunshine. Conditions started off perfect with a little rain overnight, before the track turned into a river. T
Adam Bowey
hings started to dry out mid afternoon making the mud sticky and the climbs challenging, as energy levels started to drop.
More rain brought relief along with cold weather. I felt strong and fairly consistent, only being overtaken by the odd ebike on the climbs.
A challenging but rewarding race
Thanks to Fletcher Media for the photographic contribution to this post!
